1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for visually and audibly presenting highly personal thoughts and engrams of a person as a gift to a loved one. The gift may be embodied in seasonal items, such as Christmas ornaments and Easter eggs, in jewelry, such as pendants, and other household keepsake items such as framed pictures, and employs a slide transparency for projecting an image.
2. Description of the Background
Often, the greatest gifts one can receive from a loved one are those in which a person gives to another something of a personal nature, thereby imparting a reminder of the loved one, forming a connection between the donor and the recipient. One such gift is a picture of the donor, particularly if it is accompanied with a personalized audio message directed toward the recipient. Although the present state of the an entails use of audio and video recordings, the prior an lacks a simple and inexpensive means of presenting a sentimental gift including personal engrams of the donor and pictures of the donor. Moreover, the prior art fails to reflect embodiments which combine such personal messages with themes associated with the season of the gift.
A variety of examples of structures adapted for various presentations includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,915 to D""Angelo et al. which describes a handheld alphanumeric display device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,749 to Franklin describes a device having pre-recorded speech messages, triggerable from pre-set alarms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,203 to Halamka describes a system for prerecording and transmitting personalized audio and video messages.
Others include U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,662 to Womach et al. describing a system for pre-recording personalized video messages capable of interweaving the message with separately pre-recorded background scenes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,970 to Lakso et al. describes a personal communication device comprising a keyboard for use in transmitting alphameric data to remote screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,588 to Bisset et al. describes a personal communication device operated by a touch tone screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,462 to Fishman et al. describes a flexible raster control on a transmitted remote rasterized display.
Still others include U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,690 to Yoshino et al. describing a display system for assimilating a montage of facial, features into a hypothetical face.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,753 to Martin describes a portable sound effect player which plays prerecorded sounds which are stored on pre-record interchangeable plug in cartridges.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,760 to Kumar describes a portable recording and playback messaging and scheduling device with home base station.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,346 to Sekiguchi et al. describes a process for making video images using fresnel lenses so as to give the perception of movement.
An article in Electronics Review describes a single chip speech synthesizer capable of synthesizing digitized human speech and a QSI product brochure describes a hand held message display device.
Foreign publications include U.K. Patent Application 2039394A to Fujisawa describing an electronic calculator having an audible sound output.
U.K. Pat. Application 2126 764A to Sinclair describes a hand held portable electronic device for displaying information.
Japanese Pat. Application 51-160476 to Seikosha describes a watch having an audio and a video display.
Although a plethora of technological devices exist which may be able to store, synthesize and otherwise display audio-visual images, none of the above prior art references, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for presenting highly personal thoughts, sentiments, and engrams of persons in the form of a gift to a loved one. The present invention entails presenting a personal gift which imparts a sentiment of the giver to the recipient via an image and an audio message, taking advantage of the prevailing position that gifts of a loved one are the most highly cherished, thereby creating a highly personal gift to the recipient. A gift which contains a likeness of the loved one transfers the associated feelings of the loved one and helps retain and remember those feelings. One may also transfer feelings of an occasion or season by combining the personal message with a representative embodiment of the season, for example, a Christmas ornament. However, typically, transferring the photographic image of the donor and personalizing the gift can only be done by having a specialist use expensive means to transfer the image to the gift. The present invention overcomes this problem, suggesting a means using a simple photo transparency, such as a color slide, to project the donor""s image onto a screen, either formed in a case of a predetermined theme or onto a wall, thus allowing the donor to simply and easily incorporate his or her own image, and voice, in a personalized way without the need to send out the image for incorporation into the gift.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to present a gift having an image of a loved one to a recipient of the gift in conjunction with a personalized audio message.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a gift representative of special occasions, such as holidays, to a recipient.
It is another object of the invention to combine a Christmas ornament with a personalized audio and video message from a donor to a gift recipient.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.